California Court Rules Home-Schooling Parents Have to Be "Credentialed"

[BPSCG]

Link

A California appeals court ruling clamping down on homeschooling by parents without teaching credentials sent shock waves across the state this week, leaving an estimated 166,000 children as possible truants and their parents at risk of prosecution.

The homeschooling movement never saw the case coming.

"At first, there was a sense of, 'No way,' " said homeschool parent Loren Mavromati, a resident of Redondo Beach (Los Angeles County) who is active with a homeschool association. "Then there was a little bit of fear. I think it has moved now into indignation."

The ruling arose from a child welfare dispute between the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and Philip and Mary Long of Lynwood, who have been homeschooling their eight children. Mary Long is their teacher, but holds no teaching credential.

The parents said they also enrolled their children in Sunland Christian School, a private religious academy in Sylmar (Los Angeles County), which considers the Long children part of its independent study program and visits the home about four times a year.

The Second District Court of Appeal ruled that California law requires parents to send their children to full-time public or private schools or have them taught by credentialed tutors at home.

(...snip...)

The ruling was applauded by a director for the state's largest teachers union.

"We're happy," said Lloyd Porter, who is on the California Teachers Association board of directors. "We always think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what the setting."

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Oh! Oh!

 

[Susan Gerbic]

This ought to be interesting. The home-schooled students in our town are the ones that win all the spelling bees and other such.

We don't have the schools built to teach these students in right now. I am in Monterey County CA and our schools are over stuffed right now.

Can't wait to see what ends up happening with this.

Susan

 

[shecky]

This is a strange ruling. Nobody seems to know how it'll play out.

I'm not sure why credentialism is an issue as long as the result meet standards. This would also seem to affect many private schools where uncredentialed teachers are more common.

The home-schooled students in our town are the ones that win all the spelling bees and other such.

Anecdotally, most of the home schooled kids I've known were great at spelling, dismally poor at science. The one exception was a kid home schooled by a... credentialed teacher mom.

 

[Susan Gerbic]

Why are they all great at spelling?

Susan

 

[shecky]

Good question. It does occur to me that good spelling, like good penmanship, is increasingly irrelevant these days as computers become more common.

 

[Architect]

Surely "credentialed" isn't a real word? Presumably they mean qualified, or assessed, or registered, or some combination thereof?

 

[Alt+F4]

I wonder how folks would feel if the parents in this case were taking their children to an "uncredentialed" doctor rather than and "uncredentialed" teacher?

 

[ponderingturtle]

I wonder how folks would feel if the parents in this case were taking their children to an "uncredentialed" doctor rather than and "uncredentialed" teacher?

Given the numbers going to naturopaths or acupuncture or chiropractors rather a lot of people.

 

[Loss Leader]

The California legislature is going to fix this in about forty minutes.

Even people who believe in public high schools want to feel like they have the option to take their keds out and teach them whatever the heck they want.

 

[Alt+F4]

Given the numbers going to naturopaths or acupuncture or chiropractors rather a lot of people.

You are correct. I meant cases where parents refuse medical treatment for a child and as a result that child dies.

 

[ponderingturtle]

The California legislature is going to fix this in about forty minutes.

Even people who believe in public high schools want to feel like they have the option to take their keds out and teach them whatever the heck they want.

But do they have that option? I remember Miss Anthrope talking about how in her state that the home schooled children had to meet the same requirements as public schooled kids.

 

[ponderingturtle]

You are correct. I meant cases where parents refuse medical treatment for a child and as a result that child dies.

Depends on how close in time those events are. Anti Vax and so on get a free pass to kill their kids with their negligence, but in say the case of appendicitis it would be criminal.

 

[slingblade]

Surely "credentialed" isn't a real word? Presumably they mean qualified, or assessed, or registered, or some combination thereof?

Define "real" word?

It's jargon, which is specialized language within a field of endeavor. Within education, credentialed is a perfectly cromulent word, with a clear meaning understood by those in education.

"Qualified" wouldn't work as a substitute. I am more than qualified to be a teacher, but I'm not one. I'm not credentialed.

I've also been "assessed." Still not credentialed, though.

"Registered" doesn't meet the requirement, either. All three of your words are part of the credential-gaining process, but no one of them represents it, entire.

 

[WildCat]

Good question. It does occur to me that good spelling, like good penmanship, is increasingly irrelevant these days as computers become more common.

Nonsense! Until a spell checker knows the difference between to, two, too and they're, there and their and lose and loose etc etc people really should know how to spell.

 

[skeptifem]

Anecdotally, most of the home schooled kids I've known were great at spelling, dismally poor at science. The one exception was a kid home schooled by a... credentialed teacher mom.

yeah well i was homeschooled for a short period of time as a kid. my mom studied mostly math and science when she was in college so I learned a lot about those subjects. she didnt have a degree or any training to teach but we ran out of grade level stuff to do in 1/2 a year.

so i feel sorta sad that other kids wont be able to do that, but i realize im pretty much in the minority w/my homeschool experience. I do wonder what this measure is going to do to already over crowded public schools, it might just mean that everyone gets less of an education.

 

[WildCat]

At any rate, this isn't really about the quality of schooling but about the teachers unions worried about power, influence, and numbers.

 

[Loss Leader]

At any rate, this isn't really about the quality of schooling but about the teachers unions worried about power, influence, and numbers.

I doubt the teacher"s union "got" to the appellate court.

 

[Alt+F4]

At any rate, this isn't really about the quality of schooling but about the teachers unions worried about power, influence, and numbers.

Trust me, as a member of a teacher's union, the last thing I want is more kids in my classroom.

 

[Susan Gerbic]

In todays newspaper they announced that the Gov. is going to be mailing out layoff notices to a good % of CA teachers. We are having serious budget problems over here. Not sure if they have thought this through yet. I suppose that the homeschooling issue won't be resolved this year, or even maybe next year.

Susan